Pine Bluff Daily Graphic

"Y" in U. S. to Observe French 4th of July

"France Day," known in France as "Bastile Day," will be observed July 14th at all army Y. M. C. A. buildings in the southern department in compliance with a bulletin issued by the educational bureau of the department.

In the bulletin the suggestion is made that all the buildings be decorated with the Tricolor of France and that appropriate patriotic exercises be held in which the significance of the day should be emphasized.

"On July 14th, the people of France will celebrate the storming and the fall of the old monarchical prison, the Bastile, which occurred on July 14, 1789," reads the bulletin. It was on this day that the French people decided to free themselves of the autocratic rule of the Bourbon monarchy and to establish a democratic form of government just as they had only a few years before helped the American colonists to break away from the English crown.

"During the last two years the peoples of these two great republics have been drawn more closely together than at any time since the period of the great revolutions. The Old World may be considered only a follow-up movement of these revolutions.

"The French people recognize our Revolution as an important part of their own and so have come to celebrate with us July 4. Should we not recognize July 14 as another equally important day and celebrate with the French on that day?"

The bulletin goes on with the suggestion that now these two days of Independence have assumed an International significance, and continues:

"You as Y. M. C. A. secretaries who are anxious to further the cause of world democracy, arrange for the observance of France Day."

The bulletin was signed by W. A. Davis, the educational director of the southern department of the Y. M. C. A.